The Stoneleigh-Burnham School Debate and Public Speaking Society participated in a Novice Parliamentary Extemporaneous Debate Tournament at St. Sebastian’s School in Needham, MA on Sunday, February 18, 2018.

Jackie Kennick ’19 won an award for being Stoneleigh-Burnham’s top speaker. In addition, the two-person team of Jackie and Kate Kowalyshynm ’20 were 3-0.

Coach Karen Pleasant noted that SBS purposefully sent completely new debaters to the tournament in order provide them with some experience at competitions. She said the tournament was a valuable learning experience for everyone.

In addition to novices at the competition, Julia Thayer ’18 joined the group to support the SBS team but also to meet with other students going to the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship in Cape Town, South Africa this spring. Thayer qualified for the U.S. Team to compete at Worlds, along with classmate Sophie Hathaway ’18.

The Stoneleigh-Burnham School Upper School Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) Team won the Region 10 Reserve Champion at the IEA regionals on Saturday, Feb. 17 at Mount Holyoke College. In addition to taking Reserve Champion as a team, an individual rider, Ruby Miller ’23, qualified to compete at IEA Zone 1 Finals, which will be held at the Eastern States Exposition March 24-25. See complete results below.

The Stoneleigh-Burnham Theater Department will present She Kills Monsters, a play written by Qui Nguyen, February 23-25, 2018 in Emerson Hall. Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 23 and Saturday, February 24, and at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 25.

The play is a free community event and open to the public. Refreshments will be available.

A comedic romp into the world of fantasy role-playing games, She Kills Monsters tells the story of Agnes Evans as she leaves her childhood home in Ohio following the death of her teenage sister, Tilly. When Agnes finds Tilly’s Dungeons & Dragons notebook, she stumbles into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was Tilly’s refuge.

Massachusetts Horse Magazine’s February/March 2018 issue features Equestrian Director George Halkett in its Horseperson Feature. In addition to portraying Halkett’s important role at Stoneleigh-Burnham School, the article describes our wonderful equestrian program and the uniqueness of SBS in general.

The author of the article is SBS alumna and freelance writer Andrea Bugbee ’84, who interviewed Halkett about his work and the equestrian program, visited campus to speak with student riders Gwen Healy ’19 and Kate Kowalyshyn ’20, and interviewed recent alumna Maren Vogel ’17. The article can be viewed here.

Learn more about SBS’s equestrian offerings here. Summer programs in riding can be found here.

Back issues of Massachusetts Horse can be found here. The magazine also has a Facebook page.

Stoneleigh-Burnham dance teacher Cat Wagner has been featured in the Daily Hampshire Gazette newspaper, based in Northampton, MA. On Feb. 9, 2018, the newspaper featured Wager in its “Art Maker” column in Hampshire Life, a weekly arts and culture magazine published by the Gazette.

“Art Maker” gives readers a chance to get to know local artists of all stripes — painters, photographers, musicians, sculptors, writers, etc. — by sharing a bit about their work and some related topics and photographs of each artist in his or her studio or home, or the place they work. For this piece, a Gazette photographer captured Wagner at work in the SBS dance studio with her students during a lesson in swing dancing.

Wagner’s passion for working with students of dance of all ages and all levels of experience has inspired her teaching of college-aged dancers at the Five Colleges, young children at dance centers in New York City, and high school students during the Bates Dance Festival. Now, aspiring dancers in grades 7-12 at SBS are benefitting from that passion, experience, and love of dance.

Wagner joined SBS at the start of the 2017-18 school year and comes to us most recently from New York City, where she developed and implemented an acrobatic after-school dance program for preschool and elementary-aged students at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, taught a wide range of dance classes for inclusion and special needs after-school programming for Mark Morris Dance Center, and served as a teaching artist at the New York City Ballet. She also spent several summers mentoring high school students during a residential dance workshop at the Bates Dance Festival, held annually at Bates College in Lewiston, ME. She has been a visiting artist at Mount Holyoke College, adjunct dance faculty at Amherst College, and a teaching fellow at Smith College. She holds an MFA in choreography and performance from Smith College and a BA in theater arts from Brandeis University. Wagner, who lives on the Stoneleigh-Burnham campus and serves as a houseparent, replaced longtime faculty member Ann Sorvino, who retired last year after more than 30 years teaching dance at SBS.

Learn more about dance at SBS here. Find information about Community Dance here and summer programs in dance here.

Stoneleigh-Burnham student U Jin Jo ’19 is attending the winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea as both a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and an official partner of the Olympics through her work on anti-bullying with an international organization.

Jo was appointed to work with Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, as a direct secretariat. Her nomination for the job came in part through her work with You Matter, an international anti-bullying organization. Jo is on the executive board of You Matter. In 2015 and in the years to follow, the Olympic Committee agreed to sponsor this organization and invited Jo to be a spokesperson for her generation on changing the culture of bullying in sports. Learn more about You Matter click here.

Among the many wonderful experiences she is having, Jo was interviewed by the BBC and NBC about being the youngest IOC secretariat in history.

“At 18 years old, people doubt my position here, but I had to work just as hard as anyone else on the team, if not, even more. I don’t need anymore justification for my work since I know how much work I put in, and I know my intentions are pure,” Jo wrote recently in an email during some down time from her work at the Olympics. “It took a tremendous effort for my organization, and myself. Therefore, I am here also as a representative of my organization to consult with the Committee when they are creating campaigns, such as, #breakthrough or #becomethelight. With the support of other organizations, like the Olympics, the momentum is there. Therefore, we are extremely positive moving forward.”

The Stoneleigh-Burnham School Debate and Public Speaking Society sent six students to a public speaking tournament at Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford, CT on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. Five SBS students competed in the tournament and one student, Nikki Mangaru ’20, attended as an observer.

Miles DeClue ’18 took 2nd place in After Dinner Speaking. In Ethical Dilemmas, Frannie Joseph ’18 earned 2nd place and Annalie Gilbert Keith ’18 took 3rd place. Joy Lundberg ’20 finished the tournament as Top Novice. Overall, Stoneleigh-Burnham’s team placed 3rd in the tournament.

In a state-wide competition of the annual Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, two Stoneleigh-Burnham students placed this year.

Miles DeClue ’18 won a Gold Key award for her photograph “On the Move.” Nikita Mangaru ’20 received an Honorable Mention for her photograph “Stand Together.”

Miles DeClue’s Gold Key photograph will be automatically considered in the national competition, and will be on display at the Scholastic Art and Writing Exhibition and Awards Ceremony in March 2018 at Tufts University.

Exhibition and ceremony details can be found on the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards website.